Grant will help some get two-year degrees

Wednesday

Oct 31, 2012 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2012 at 11:01 AM

Ohio is one of 12 states selected to receive a portion of a $6.4 million grant from the Lumina Foundation to find students who transferred without enough credits for a two-year degree but who later become eligible because of courses taken at a four-year school. In 2011, three-fourths of the nearly 50,000 students who enrolled in a public Ohio university after attending a community college transferred before receiving an associate degree.

Encarnacion Pyle, The Columbus Dispatch

Dawn Musil would love to earn an associate degree before she transfers to Ohio State University.

But she won’t have time to complete the requirements for a two-year degree before she makes the jump to Ohio State in the fall.

The 19-year-old Arizona native is allowed to stay at Columbus State Community College for only two years under a state scholarship. And she has to complete all of the prerequisite classes for a biomedical engineering degree at Ohio State before she can go.

Under a new state initiative, Musil could earn an associate degree even after she leaves Columbus State.

“That would be so awesome. I could say, ‘I did it. I’m halfway there,’??” she said.

Thinking about the next two to three years of undergraduate work ahead of her is dispiriting, Musil said. Receiving a two-year diploma would encourage her to continue.

Ohio is one of 12 states selected to receive a portion of a $6.4 million grant from the Lumina Foundation to find students who transferred without enough credits for a two-year degree but who later become eligible because of courses taken at a four-year school. In 2011, three-fourths of the nearly 50,000 students who enrolled in a public Ohio university after attending a community college transferred before receiving an associate degree.

Many Ohio educators say it’s only right to give those students credit if they complete the requirements while working on their bachelor’s.

“These students deserve recognition for their perseverance,” said Karen Muir, Columbus State’s associate vice president of academic affairs.

The Ohio Board of Regents plans to use the $500,000 grant to award 1,300 associate degrees through “reverse transfer” over the next two years. Much of that money will be used to create a data-tracking system that allows community colleges to be able to follow the progress of their students after they start work on a bachelor’s degree. Right now, four-year schools can accept credit from community colleges, but there’s no system for two-year schools to track their former students.

That isn’t necessarily a problem for students who end up earning a diploma from a four-year college, but it can hurt those who drop out before they are done and end up with no credential, which is one of major reasons the Lumina Foundation created the grants.Chancellor Jim Petro has been talking about trying to motivate students by awarding them certificates and associate degrees as they progress toward a bachelor’s as one of many ways to deal with Ohio’s college-dropout problem.

For too long, Ohio schools have been focused on increasing the number of students enrolling in college, he said, and not retaining and graduating those already there.

To help, Petro plans to release a statewide plan on Nov. 13 that outlines ways to keep students on track. A task force recently released several draft recommendations for that plan. Ideas include restructuring remedial courses for students who aren’t ready for college-level work, locking in tuition prices for a student’s four years of study and offering “steppingstone” grants and scholarships as incentives for students to continue their education.

More students who in the past would have started at a four-year university are now going to community colleges because they are less expensive, said Cynthia Feidler, an associate registrar at Ohio State.

Awarding associate degrees to students who have earned them also can mean the difference between getting a so-so job and a good one for those who drop out before completing their bachelor’s degree, said Brett Visger, a deputy chancellor with the Ohio Board of Regents.

Studies show that people with a college certificate or diploma are less likely to be unemployed and more likely to earn higher wages over their lifetime.

“What would you rather tell a prospective employer: that you have taken some college classes or that you’ve earned an associate degree in a particular course of study and have a body of knowledge that is unique and needed?” asked Ronald Abrams, the president of the Ohio Association of Community Colleges.